Richard O'Dwyer, creator of the legal UK website TVShack, faces extradition to the USA (even though TVShack is probably legal in the USA too). As usual, the MPAA has managed to get lawmakers to do their bidding so well that it has made them look like the villainous corporate scumbags everyone suspects them of being. A freshly leaked memo described by TorrentFreak documents Big Content's strategy for winning hearts and minds:
“The overall media coverage has been and will continue to be challenging,” the MPAA writes.
They mention the petition of Wikipedia founder jimmy Wales, the Demand Progress campaign, and note that a recent survey showed that 95% of the public does not support the extradition. According to the MPAA, public opinion is skewed because people are being led to believe that TVShack was operating perfectly legal in the UK.
“To counter these assertions, the MPAA and its allies need a coordinated effort to focus more on the criminal activity involved in the operation of TVShack and other similar linking sites,” the MPAA notes…
“Ideally, this would be done through third parties – but finding third parties – especially in the United Kingdom – has been very difficult so far, so the MPAA must be prepared to respond to media requests on the issue and set the record straight to counter the misinformation campaign by our opponents.”
MPAA Recruits “Surrogates” to Support Extradition of UK Student
